Innovations in Assessment and Feedback
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Video assessment and feedback
Senior Teaching Enhancement Fellow Dr Ian Sadler has been
working in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences to produce some
Principles of Exceptional Assessment and Feedback. His work in the
faculty has led to the practical implementation of video-based
assessment and feedback.
Based on Ian’s principles, tutors Brett Wilkie and Andreas
Liefeith have been working with 2nd year Performance Coaching
students. Using a combination of and iPad and video technologies,
sports lecturers Brett Wilkie and Andreas Liefeith developed a
unique approach to providing students with feedback on their
coaching performances. The impact of this new method led to
students being much more reflective practitioners. In this video,
Brett explains the process the technology and the outcomes in more
detail.
Student satisfaction has dramatically increased as a result of
this new method of assessment.
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Formative assessment
Formative assessment is a process whereby
following an activity, feedback is used as instruction for
further learning, rather than as in summative assessment, at the
conclusion of a programme of study, where errors penalise students.
The Learning Teaching and Assessment strategy 2012-2015 encourages
the review of the balance of our assessment practices in order to
place more emphasis on engaging students in formative activities.
Some examples of formative assessment practices here in YSJ
are below:
- Caroline Elbra-Ramsay, Senior Lecturer has developed an
innovative way of engaging students with feedback which is
described in her article “Can 'Quality Marking' be used to provide
effective feedback within Higher Education?” You can download the
paper
here.
- Engaging students with feedback can be quite challenging and
here is an example
of a formative assessment strategy that can be used to prompt
students to develop summative submissions in light of feedback
received.
- Mandy Asghar developed a peer feedback approach that increased
time on task and helped to create a culture of shared learning for
Physiotherapy students called
'Reciprocal Peer Coaching'.
- Ros Evans developed a
Formative Assessment Strategy in Learning and Teaching in
Mathematics having identified that students were not fully
engaging with the section of the handbook that laid out the success
criteria of the assignment, in spite of additional verbal messages
being given in taught sessions. The strategy seems to have improved
their awareness of expectations.
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Portfolio assessment
Mahara is an e-Portfolio system which staff
and students can use to develop and collect a range of resources or
evidence, which they can then share with other people.
On the accredited SEDA SLT course (link to
SEDA courses), Mahara is used to encourage participants to
regularly reflect on the range of technologies they encounter
throughout the award. Facilitators are able to provide formative
feedback on participants’ reflections. At the end of the award, a
selection of reflections, along with any evidence which
participants have gathered about their use of a range of
technologies, are submitted for summative assessment. The course
facilitators are then able to see these collections of evidence and
provide feedback.
You can see an example of ePortfolio by clicking
here.
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Self and peer assessment
Peer and self- assessment involves students assessing themselves
and others. It can be used both formatively and summatively. This
type of assessment is of value in developing students’ lifelong
skills through the development of reflection and self-
evaluation.
Here is an example of a strategy used by Rob Creasy,
Senior Teaching Fellow from Faculty of Education and Theology, to
develop a framework for self and peer assessment, described in his
paper “Establishing a “safe” framework for the development of self
and peer assessment". The article can be downloaded here.
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Audio feedback
York St John University was part of the “Sounds Good Project”
led by National Teaching Fellow Bob Rotherham. Staff recorded
feedback on student assignments using a variety of methods and
provided that feedback to students using the virtual learning
environment. We continue to experiment with audio feedback for both
summative and formative purposes. For practical tips on giving
audio feedback visit http://sites.google.com/site/soundsgooduk/.
If you are interested in using audio feedback and require support
please contact the TEL team at elearning@yorksj.ac.uk.